Our mission is to make available human brain and other body parts specimens from neuropsychiatric diseases and disorders, and normal controls. The Human Brain and Spinal Fluid Resource Center (Bank), established since 1961 is a repository of blood, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and cryopreserved postmortem nervous system tissue, available for research. Located at West Los Angeles VA Healthcare Center, our Bank functions as a dependable bridge between patients, clinicians and scientists. Volunteer patients donate specimens through our Gift of Hope donor program. Specimens are collected during clinical course and after death, and cryopreserved in our Bank. To provide the highest possible quality of research specimens, we have developed specialized quick-freeze preservation technique for whole coronal sections of brains. Therefore, corresponding structures can be studied in left and right brain from the same patient. We dissect regions on demand and histologically evaluate to confirm the requested details. To validate specific findings, inclusion of control specimens in any biomedical research project is indispensable. We provide control specimens of the user's choice. Banked neuropsychiatric and control specimens are used by scientists to search for the cause of diseases, design diagnostic tests, find markers of disease activity and find targets for treatment. In the last 5 years we have delivered over 10,000 dissections of tissues, 1,816 CSF specimens, 1,888 serum specimens and 151 urine specimens to researchers working on a variety of disease and disorders. More than 800 publications (580 in refereed journals, cited over 26,000 times) were published from 1985 to June 2005 utilizing the Bank specimens. Research results generated from our specimens may lead to new drug discoveries, which are then used by clinicians in the treatment regimen. Therefore, by making high quality research specimens readily available, our Bank helps research scientists help clinicians who help patients. The Bank's collection is an invaluable resource for human research.